


Leave No Trace

by Piinutbutter



Category: Original Work
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Injury, Nymphs & Dryads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 12:49:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20582777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piinutbutter/pseuds/Piinutbutter
Summary: "Injured, sick, and alone in the woods" is not a situation any hiker wants to find themselves in. Luckily for Sara, someone - or something - wants to protect her.





	Leave No Trace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sleeperservice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperservice/gifts).

Sara had taken all the precautions. She’d packed enough food and water. She’d charged her power banks. She’d even trimmed her toenails in the valiant fight against blisters and infection. None of that was much help now, when she was lying at the bottom of an embankment, leg hopelessly broken and well out of the range of any cell signal. 

She curled up and nursed the injury, resolving to look out for any passing fellow hikers tomorrow. Sure, she was off the beaten path - that tended to happen when you took a tumble down a steep hill - but someone would hear her eventually, right? Right.

It was nearly impossible to move through the searing pain it caused her, but Sara pushed through enough to wiggle under the shelter of a nearby tree. At least it gave her the illusion of protection against the elements. Especially when it started to rain. Dammit. She closed her eyes and willed her body to stay warm.

It was a miracle Sara managed to fall asleep at all, considering the circumstances. When she woke, she had a moment of confusion. The branches above her, which had been sparse and ineffective when she drifted off, were now knitted to form a protective roof against the chill and the falling rain. She glanced around, looking for an explanation; maybe another hiker had come to her rescue after all! 

All she saw was tree.

Still, the makeshift shelter was nothing to sniff at. She took the opportunity to try and tend to her leg as best she could. That was a bad idea. After a few attempts to stretch the limb, Sara passed out, overwhelmed by the pain and exhaustion. 

When she woke again, she was even more confused.

While she was out, someone had wrapped her wounded leg in a makeshift splint made from bark, branches, and roots. Maybe not the most sterile treatment, but it was an effective splint, Sara could see and feel that much. Her gaze whipped around the embankment, trying to catch sight of her mysterious benefactor. Nothing. Shouting didn’t bring anyone running, either.

Sara was increasingly convinced she was hallucinating. Especially when, out of the corner of her eye, she could swear she saw the figure of a woman disappearing into the tree trunk behind her. 

Of course there was nothing there when she turned. Nothing but tree.

The rain had thinned, and the bite in the air was fading with the rising of the sun, but Sara pulled her puffy jacket tight around her torso and shivered anyway.

She had no idea how she was falling asleep so much. She knew she was dreaming, now, because she was wrapped in a human embrace. Her back was pressed against a feminine figure. Strange, calloused hands were wiping her forehead with something cold and nudging her canteen against her lips, urging her to drink. The canteen was pulled away before she could drink as much as she wanted, and Sara whined. It didn’t matter how pathetic she acted in a dream. The rough hands stroked her sides and her undamaged thigh in some sort of apology. Sara huffed and nuzzled into the touches. They were as close to comfort as she was going to get, alone in the wild.

“Hey. Miss? Miss! Hey, wake up!”

The hands that were shaking her now were a lot softer than in her dream. Sara groaned and opened her eyes. She came face to face with a group of hikers fretting around her. The cavalry was finally here.

Someone ran off and got within range to make an emergency call. With a lot of help, Sara left the embankment she’d been trapped in for...she wasn’t sure how long. Days, surely. Maybe a week. She wasn’t entirely lucid yet. As evidenced by the fact that, when she turned back to give her temporary guardian tree one last glance, she saw a woman bidding her goodbye with a wave.

The first thing Sara did once she was waiting in the hospital was charge her phone and perform what she was fairly certain ranked among the silliest series of google searches in history.

_tree cryptid_  
_tree woman_  
_dryad_  
_what do dryads like to eat_  
_gifts for dryad_


End file.
